Orientation trouble - nose in

[blackmagic08]

I am very frustrated, I have been flying over a year and still cannot do nose in. I can barely do side in. It is really holding me back from FF. I keep trying on Phoenix and with my helis and it is so hard. I just don't know how it is going to click. I just crashed my mCPx outside because I got disoriented. How am I ever going to make a complete circuit if I get so messed up?

[andypants]

How do you go with your P-51? Do you find flying a fixed-wing toward yourself doable? If so, the skills are quite similar (but obviously not the same), and perhaps the problem is one of confidence. If not, maybe really concentrate on the reflex of reversing the aileron (putting the stick under the low wing) - I used the same technique with helis to help me fly nose-in. Just put the cyclic stick 'beneath' the lower part of the rotor disc. If the heli's dipping the right side of its rotor disc (which is the left side from your perspective), move the cyclic stick to the left to 'push' it back up again. This mental trick really did the trick for me, but it's easier to get right in your head with a fixed-wing.

[rojack]

One thing to try is to pick a big slow bird in Phoenix, like the Trex 700, then slow the sim waaay down, like to 33% or so. (1/3 speed). With the sim that slow, you'll have plenty of time to react and correct your mistakes. It helped me a lot! Then when you've got it, go up to 50%, then 75%, etc.

At 33% I can do anything! I'm a 3D flying genius at 1/3 speed with a Trex 700. You have to be really patient though for the heli to react at that speed. I almost forgot this trick. I've been trying to learn flying backwards now for months, and not getting anywhere. I will try my own suggestion. Thanks for the reminder!

[blackmagic08]

Originally Posted by rojack

One thing to try is to pick a big slow bird in Phoenix, like the Trex 700, then slow the sim waaay down, like to 33% or so. (1/3 speed). With the sim that slow, you'll have plenty of time to react and correct your mistakes. It helped me a lot! Then when you've got it, go up to 50%, then 75%, etc.

At 33% I can do anything! I'm a 3D flying genius at 1/3 speed with a Trex 700. You have to be really patient though for the heli to react at that speed. I almost forgot this trick. I've been trying to learn flying backwards now for months, and not getting anywhere. I will try my own suggestion. Thanks for the reminder!

I never considered slowing the sim down, I left it at 100% so it is very hard. I think I will try that and see how it goes.

[MeatRocket]

I'll just add that I had to dedicate myself to doing nose-in only. Slow-down/beginner, whatever, I just had to MAKE myself only do nose-in. Don't be down, it took me FOREVER as well.

[v2kdj]

Best bit of advise i read when flying nose in was to move the stick towards where the heli is heading....confused......
If the heli is nose in an headin left...ease stick left too......if its goin right ease stick right.......if its comin at you.....ease stick towards you too.....
Try this on the sim first.....its what did the trick for me!!!

Good luck an keep up the practice.

[hndaluvr]

Yep...
I learned the same way.... "tip - or - touch" the rotor disk on the edge that's dropping.
worked like a dream for me.

[Heli_KV]

Not sure how it can be done with MCPx, but if you have larger bird, put TG on and take off nose-in or slide around for some time.

[craymanus]

: clappp

[dankreed]

Originally Posted by v2kdj

Best bit of advise i read when flying nose in was to move the stick towards where the heli is heading....confused......
If the heli is nose in an headin left...ease stick left too......if its goin right ease stick right.......if its comin at you.....ease stick towards you too.....
Try this on the sim first.....its what did the trick for me!!!

Good luck an keep up the practice.

This is probably the best explanation I have ever heard .. simple and brilliant.

[clank72]

Blackmagic, just keep at it, you will get it. Some of us learn at different rates so it's OK. You will get it.

[NAFEAR]

I was about to post the same comment but you just said it..it works very well.Basically what your are doing is copying the heli"s movement...that is all it is..try it you will be amazed..GL

[TenDo]

Originally Posted by v2kdj

Best bit of advise i read when flying nose in was to move the stick towards where the heli is heading....confused......
If the heli is nose in an headin left...ease stick left too......if its goin right ease stick right.......if its comin at you.....ease stick towards you too.....
Try this on the sim first.....its what did the trick for me!!!

Good luck an keep up the practice.

Yep Best advice, I got two advice when learning, one was to hang a weight on a string in a doorway or such, and follow the pendelum motion with your stick (pretty much same as watching rotor disc pendelum swings right = disc dips right, Second is what is mentioned above, move the stick towards the danger, so if the heli is moving right lets say towards a fence well den move cyclic stick right towards the fence (danger). don't know if that made sense, but to sum up, point cyclic stick towards where you don't want your heli to be =)

(apologize for my so so English)

[ABADGTP]

I can kinda fly nose in pretty good with my daughters MCX2 and do an ok job with my MadHawk 300 but scared to with my TRex 450...I tried overcoming that fear last weekend and now Im looking for parts to fix it from my crash.

I started 3-4 months ago with a 3 channel...that is REALLY screwimg me up because in quick split second reaction circumstances, I revert back to 3 channel mentality. What has REALLY helped improve my nose in is I pretend I am in the cockpit...that way, left/right cyclic and turning will always be the same based on the orientation of the heli from you...if you can keep pretending to be in the cockpit. Starting with that 3 Channel was a huge mistake for me because again, for some reason, when I get in panic mode, my brain defaults to 3 channel flying. HTH

Blessings,
Rick

[rooni79]

Not sure where I got it from but "you gotta prop the table up!!" If the right side is down, then prop that side up!

[clank72]

I notice different orientations are harder for some then others. I learned nose-in very quickly. However side-in was a complete nightmare for me. Till this day I still get the quivers when hovering side-in because I remember how many times I crashed to get to that point. Now I'm learning Inverted and it's like starting from Day 1.

Slowing down the Sim is great advice though. It will click soon, just keep at it. After you learn nose-in and side-in, Forward flight just comes natural. Well that's how it was for me anyway.

[Sabre22]

Originally Posted by rojack

One thing to try is to pick a big slow bird in Phoenix, like the Trex 700, then slow the sim waaay down, like to 33% or so. (1/3 speed). With the sim that slow, you'll have plenty of time to react and correct your mistakes. It helped me a lot! Then when you've got it, go up to 50%, then 75%, etc.

At 33% I can do anything! I'm a 3D flying genius at 1/3 speed with a Trex 700. You have to be really patient though for the heli to react at that speed. I almost forgot this trick. I've been trying to learn flying backwards now for months, and not getting anywhere. I will try my own suggestion. Thanks for the reminder!

rojack, thanks for the suggestion for slowing down the simulator, all i can say is WOW what a difference on controlling the heli. Much easier now

[skysynergy]

Originally Posted by hndaluvr

Yep...
I learned the same way.... "tip - or - touch" the rotor disk on the edge that's dropping.
worked like a dream for me.

+1 This worked for me also, now it's automatic. The good news is it's the same for inverted (side/side movement).

Good luck!

[erospawn]

My break through came with the mcpX.. It's a tank so I didn't worry too much if I crashed. So, I would sit in the yard and try and hover nose in for hours at a time. After you can nose in, FF comes naturally!

[sparkvolt]

Originally Posted by v2kdj

Best bit of advise i read when flying nose in was to move the stick towards where the heli is heading....confused......
If the heli is nose in an headin left...ease stick left too......if its goin right ease stick right.......if its comin at you.....ease stick towards you too.....
Try this on the sim first.....its what did the trick for me!!!

Good luck an keep up the practice.

Great advice!

Another newbie here and the post above just caused things to click in my head. I can achieve stable hover tail-in, but had issues with nose-in because I kept trying to force my brain to think counterintuitively. It was trained to counteract the heli movement in order to stabilize it (which is absolutely true in all orientations), but when looking at heli nose-in the orientation and perception would fool the brain and I'd end up with heli on it's side.

What I just realized from the post above is that tail-in/nose-in comes down to two simple concepts: matching and mirroring.

Tail-In: Mirroring
Nose-In: Matching

For me at least it is much easier to instruct my brain to "match those movements", then consciously trying to figure out what it would look like from tail and respond accordingly. Just tried it in a sim and my nose-in lasted longer than any of my previous attempts.